Mariner House Board of Directors Meeting: April 15, 2025 – Minutes

A Zoom-based Mariner House Board of Directors (BOD) meeting was held on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, using the Mariner House Zoom account and recorded by MHA Zoom host Tracy Canty, and which constitutes the official and approved recording of this meeting.
Attending the meeting were Board members: Ranelle Brew, Pat Catchpole, Kerric Harvey, Bob Vanasse, and Property Manager Tracy Canty.
Absent were Tammy Rausch and Mark Thurston.
A quorum of the voting members having been reached, Bob Vanasse called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. (EDT), followed by a vote accepting last month’s minutes.
PROPERTY MANAGER’S REPORT
Island News
* The island weather continues to be challenging – cold, rainy, windy, and damp, resulting in many boat cancellations. People are eager for the new Steamship Authority vessels to come online, and/or for the weather to shift into more seasonally familiar patterns.
* There are several items involving Nantucket property changes to report. First, the local and long-standing senior citizen residence, “Our Island Home,” is slated for re-building at a cost of approximately $126 million. This item will need to come before the Nantucket Town Meeting for approval.
* The classic Nantucket eatery, “Faregrounds Restaurant and Pudley’s Pub” has been sold to a real estate developer who plans to replace it with up to (8) building lots. The loss of the restaurant is a major loss to year-round Island residents, especially, since it has served as Nantucket’s “public house” for many years, hosting everything from sports banquets for Nantucket high school teams to life change events like post-funeral gatherings. It is unclear at this time if, and what, other public establishment might step into this important community role.
* The Surfside Crossing development of 156 apartments was voted down. The developer is, apparently, considering legal action as a result.
* Speaking of legal action, the organization “ACT for Whales” has launched a new fight against Vineyard Wind, the company whose turbine collapsed last summer, littering the island’s South Shore beaches with so much fibre-glass debris that they had to close in the middle of the high season.
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* The current point of legal contention focuses on the permitting process for emission results. Bob Vanasse was very helpful in outlining the administrative apparatus for this to the Board. Kerric raised the possibility of the long term effect of proliferating wind farms on Nantucket’s long-term desirability as a coastal vacation spot and the eventual residual effects on rental and sales of Island property. The general consensus of the Board was that we are not, thankfully, at that point yet, and that it remains to be seen if these negative effects ever do come to pass.
* The Town of Nantucket is also challenging the Federal government’s go-ahead for a second, even larger wind farm to be located between the South Shore and deeper waters heading towards Long island Sound. This project has been in and out of “uncertainty” for several reasons, including financial ones related to a change of mind by the state of Connecticut, which opted earlier this year to go with solar power instead of the wind turbine model for a large chunk of their electricity needs. The possibility of this second wind farm is, however, still very much a live discussion.
* The much beloved Nantucket Daffodil Festive dates for 2025 are April 25 & 26.
MEETING REPORT
Mariner House Updates
* Mariner House occupancy during March 2025 was 47%, an increase of 18% over February’s number.
* Tracy is engaged in undertaking this year’s capital improvement projects, despite the weather continuing to interfere with that. Painting has started, for example, but keeps having to stop for the weather.
* The gutters are off, preparatory to repair and/or replacement, and Tracy has met with our newly-hired photographer to start taking interior pictures for the website.
On-Going Business
* The search for a new Mariner House Association lawyer continues. Several BOD members offered some suggestions, but our current attorney, Joe Guay, wants to see if he can bring over an attorney from the law firm Cohen and Cohen first, since he knows of her work and this would allow some useful overlap between current and new attorneys.
* If that overture doesn’t pan out, then the current plan is to reach out to Bob’s suggestions, based on his conversation with the owner of the D.C. Millie’s, and possibly the lawyer suggested by Kerric, after that. More suggestions for potential MHA lawyers are more than welcome.
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* Meanwhile, Joe Guay continues to work from his Florida residence on the foreclosures and other MHA legal issues on a part-time basis.
* Since exterior painting (on the Centre Street side of the house) is one of this year’s capital improvement projects, Bob suggested that we take advantage of that situation to remove the large sign advertising “luxury apartments” that has ben attached to the Mariner House exterior wall since the 1980s and which all agree is an architectural eyesore. Pat Catchpole seconded the motion, which then passed by unanimous vote of all members present.
* This also raised several interesting related items of new business.
New Business
* Kerric agreed that it was long past time to remove the 1982 sign, but noted that it was quite useful to retain some kind of replacement notice actually on the building, to let passers-by know that Mariner House was a rental option as well as a possible purchase opportunity. She made a motion to add a small sign to this effect, done in the same style, size, and format as the historical plaque currently affixed to the exterior wall next to the front stairs. In contrast to the current notice of interval ownership status, this new sign would not be illustrated, but would simply identify Mariner House as a multi-unit building in which units are available to rent or purchase.
* A lively discussion ensued.
* Several different iterations of this notion were considered, with pros and cons raised by several Board members. The debate reached fruition with Bob’s suggestion that rather than add a new sign, however tasteful and discreet it might be, we could simply add a few words about Mariner House’s status as a rental and/or purchase venue to the extant historical plaque, which is so faded and cracked as to require re-painting anyway.
* Kerric enthusiastically amended her motion to reflect this new idea, and at Bob’s request read it into the minutes as follows: “I move that we add information about rental and purchase opportunities at Mariner House to our current historical plaque, limited to language along the lines of ‘For interval ownership or rental information please call 508-680-1082’.”
* The revised motion was unanimously approved by voice count, but tabled for an actual vote until the May 2025 meeting so that a greater number of Board members could be part of the conversation.
* Also during the course of the discussion, Ranelle Brew suggested that the “old” sign advertising Mariner House intervals be gifted to the Rose and Crown for inclusion in their quirky and delightful collection of island memorabilia. This idea was met with near-raucous enthusiasm by all present.
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* There being no more New Business, Bob moved that the meeting adjourn. Pat seconded and the April BOD adjourned at 7:41 p.m. EDT.
* The next Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th at 7:00 p.m. EDT, via the Mariner House Zoom account.
Minutes submitted by:
Kerric Harvey,
ACK MHA BOD Secretary,
May 13, 2025